Recently, I came across this correspondence between Jerry Korn (one of the founders of IK Meerschaum, our wholesale meerschaum group) and a customer who was concerned about whether a pipe he bought was a pressed or a whole block pipe. Rather than trying to describe the exchange, I'll repost the thread here for everyone's edification. Of course some of the outdated details and some identities have been changed to protect the innocent.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey R
To: Lighters Galore Plus
Subject: attn: Mr. Jerry Korn

Hi Mr. Korn-

               I was reading your article on meerschaum pipes in lightersgalore.com, and wanted to get your expert guidance on an issue that has cropped up in regard to a pipe I purchased about 3 months ago or so.

I attached a pic of this pipe, it's rather large, and highly detailed. This was signed by Emin, and is by far, without question, my favorite pipe.

I recently went to my tobacconist here in Maryland, and he wanted to see my new meer, so I pulled it out of the case, and handed it to him. Not more than 30 seconds later he says, "this is gonna take a long time to color." I said "yeah it's thick and big", to which he replied, "yeah, and it's also pressed."

My response was "yeah right". I have read extensively about the Emin Brothers in P&T magazine, (in their 3-4 page spread in that publication there is a pipe similar to mine...without the "rattle claw"...just the indian head) and they don’t seem the type to deal in inferior pressed pipes...much less carve this kind of detail into an inferior pressed meerschaum.

From what I understand, pressed cannot even be carved into such detail as this pipe is. The dealer who told me it was pressed, took it by the tip of the mouthpiece with thumb and forefinger, and rocked it up and down...and said it was "heavy". He handed me a similar size pipe (but a tad smaller) and said for me to compare. I saw very very little difference...mine was abit heavier, but not more than I'd expect for the extra volume/size mine has.

I have to admit, I left the store a little pissed off. I personally do not believe it to be pressed, and I bought an Emin pipe I fell for because of their "block" reputation.

My question after this long diatribe is, what method can I use to tell block/pressed? Or can you tell because of it's intricate carve job, or...by the carver? The case had a small "IK Meerschaum" label inside, if that makes any difference.

As much as I believe it is block, I have to defer to your knowledge and expertise. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. (see attachment for picture)

Thank you,

Jeff R.

To this, Jerry replied with this excellent lesson about meerschaum pipes:

Dear Jeff,

How interesting it is that you ask me about this pipe. Actually, it was us that sold you the pipe thru one of our e-bay listings under the username of meerpipesco. That particular pipe was a one of a kind that was originally shown on our IK Meerschaum Pipe site at www.meerschaumpipes.com . The sticker "IK Meerschaum" is our company logo that we put on all our pipes because we are proud of our quality and 100% guarantee against any major defects even after a pipe has been smoked. Yes the pipe is 100% solid Block Meerschaum. Sometimes when we get down to only one pipe left of a particular style or design, we will discount it a bit and offer it on e-bay until we receive more pipes of that design.

I have known the Emin brothers for over 15 years and on each trip we make to Turkey about twice a year, we always go out to their village, have lunch with them, and see what they have to offer. About a year or two ago they even got together with a few other carvers and started their own mine. We have even gone down about 300 feet to the bottom to see how everything is down there which was about the 5th or 6th mine I've been down in over the past years. I have ton's of pictures we have taken over the years and hopefully by summer time I will have a whole section on our site showing everything and explaining the complete real story about Meerschaum from about 30 years ago to present. Your particular pipe was one of a group of about 40 different designs that we bought on a trip last year. I bought the whole group even thought none of them were finished yet because after dealing with them for over 15 years, I know how high their standards are. One of the brothers does most of the basic preparation like cutting the raw stones into carvable pieces, then does some of the final steps like drilling the stem hole, threading, waxing, polishing, etc. The other brother will do most of the carving, both the initial "rough" part then the final intricate detail parts. Depending on each pipe, they will each do different segments and only when the pipe is done and up to their standards will the pipe be signed. Even to this day, there is only a handful of carvers who will, or will be allowed to, sign their pipes.

Over the years I have run up against so many tobacconist's that are either owners or clerks that think they know soooo much about Meerschaum, that now when I hear stories like yours I just disregard what most of them "think" they know. I could write a book about how utterly false it is what this guy said about pressed verses block explaining how just one factor he noticed, weight, is a way to tell the difference or is even important anymore !!  Hog-wash, weight is no longer even a main factor as it "might" have been 10 years ago. Many, many, things have changed just in the past 10 or 15 years, from the way it used to be, to the way things are now.  From mining to preparing to finishing a pipe, some processes have changed. The only thing that has stayed the same over the past 200 or 300 years is the talent and expertise of a particular carver.

To make a long story short, weight is no longer a major factor in telling whether a pipe is pressed or not. The pressed Meerschaum coming out of Turkey nowadays was re-formulated about 7 or 8 years ago where now, pressed can actually be lighter then block. It didn't used to be like that, in the past pressed was always heavier and that was one way to tell. Now, pressed uses no chemicals other then water, it's the process of "pressing" that has changed. There is only one company that produces pressed Meerschaum and I have known them personally over 20 years. I have had discussions and sometimes arguments that sometimes their pressed product is "too good" and they better be very careful !! about what the carvers are doing with it so that pressed does not make it into the export market, especially the US. To make another long story short, almost all pressed Meerschaum pipes are sold in Turkey, for the domestic market, and primarily to the tourist trade. Nowadays, as I mentioned since pressed is so hard to tell from block, unless you're an expert, almost the only way anyone from people like yourself to true tobacconists can be assured their pipe is 100% block Meerschaum and not pressed, is the reputation and guarantee received from the seller you buy from. It starts from the import level. A store, or a customer like yourself must get their pipes from a reputable and establish importer who knows Meerschaum, knows the carvers, and goes to Turkey to do their actual buying. We have been importing from Turkey almost 30 years now and we have seen them come and seen them go. There are only "about" 10 or 15 of us in the whole country who know the business and have been in it long enough to know 1st quality from 2nds, 3rds, and 4th quality to pressed. The biggest problem in the US market has been individuals who travel to Turkey, see all those "deals" and without knowing what they are doing, bring back pipes to sell on their own. Some only bring back a few pipes, others will try to bring back a 100 pipes and also sell to stores at a "greatly" reduced price. Since even stores can't usually tell anymore, they will buy because of price and "hope" for the quality. Example, there are a few villages in Turkey where raw Meerschaum is so light in weight, it "seems" like it must be the greatest quality. For those of us that know what villages I am talking about, we also know that the quality of that particular "light weight" Meerschaum is so bad that it is almost guaranteed to crack sometime after it has been smoked. No major carver will ever use that region's Meerschaum. Except for some unscrupulous carvers, it's now used almost entirely for the domestic market the same as pressed is.

This is the same story of Turkish people who will come to this country with 100's and sometimes over 1000 pipes to sell. They make the rounds, sell at incredible prices, and no one will ever see them again. Unfortunately that can also be the darker side of some of the Internet companies now on line located out of Turkey. Since Turkey is now an authorized PayPal country, you see more companies selling at reduced prices saying "save money, buy direct". Out of about 15 companies based in Turkey that I have noticed selling pipes on the Internet, I could only say maybe 2 or 3 are trustworthy, do know all about Meerschaum, and have some pipes I know are 1st quality. Even though, they are still located in Turkey, their pipes are shipped from Turkey, and they are not exactly "experts" at customer service most times. As for the other Internet sellers, I know for a fact that they vary from individual carvers who know nothing about business and are just trying to "dump" their products, to business people who know nothing about Meerschaum and are just offering whatever they can buy for the cheapest price and selling it for whatever price they can get and have no concern for quality, only how the piece looks in a picture on their Internet site.

Now to your last concern about the weight of your pipe. If it's comfortable for you, then it's great. Since Meerschaum mines in general are having to be dug deeper and deeper to get to the better and larger raw stones, many of the pieces coming up now are just a bit heavier then others. All the slight increase in weight means is that the particular piece your pipe was carved from was a little more dense then some other pieces. The deeper a piece comes from, the slightly denser and heavier it will be. It's hard to explain unless you have 20 or 30 raw stones lined up next to each other. The quality within the stone comes from the lack of any small or even microscopic flaws that may run thru the stone. Many times a carver will work for a day or even a week on a piece and then all of a sudden he will hit a flaw, or crack that was buried inside the original piece that was imposable to see before carving. When that happens, all his work on that pipe just went down the drain. It is now a piece of junk that is used for beads, or knurls, or other small Meerschaum items. The Emin brothers will use only the best pieces of Meerschaum for their pipes. They have a very special way of testing raw stones for quality that has been handed down to them from other carvers that have been using the method for 100's of years. It involves everything from smelling, pinching, tapping, and even tasting the raw stone. 

One last point that makes your pipe unique, it has been coated in wax an extra 2 or 3  times before it got it's final polishing. Some carvers use only one coat, some use more. Even the Emin brothers vary, some pipes they give a single coat, some more. This also adds just a bit more weight and is purely up to the carver and what he is thinking about at the time. If you look on our site in the Signed Master Carvers pipes you will see that Baglan and Sabri also like to do this extra dipping.

Obviously this was not my normal response to a simple e-mail question. It was going to be a simple one or two paragraphs, but when I started getting into the answer and thought about how you probably felt when you walked out of that store after hearing the word "pressed", I had to get into a more involved answer. For your information, I now plan to edit this a bit, have someone check my "creative grammar style" and submit it to a couple of pipe and tobacco magazines that have asked me a few times to write something about Meerschaum.  Please give me your opinion, do you think that other people like yourself would find this to be an interesting article and subject to read ?? I would appreciate any feedback.

I hope this helps ease your mind and lets you know you do have a 1st quality, unique pipe and I am sure you will enjoy it for many years to come. Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with, and if you do see something on our sites your interested in, just mention this e-mail and I will be happy to give you a 15 % discount off any order.

Sincerely,
Jerry Korn
IK Meerschaum